Dane Dunning Hurls First Pain-Free Bullpen

The offseason is hardly old enough for a hangover to cure and the White Sox have good news. Dane Dunning is pain-free.

Dunning was part of the Adam Eaton-trade that netted Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez, far more heralded prospects than Dunning. Yet, this could have been a mere function of Dunning's young professional career. At the time of the trade, Dunning had been drafted six months earlier. Contributing to his unknown status was his inability to stretch out of an understudy. He was assigned to the bullpen at the University of Florida because of a depth in the rotation that was the envy of college baseball. But as Dunning dazzled in a year and a half in the White Sox farm system, he was struck with an injury in June. He was yanked from a first start at Double-A after it was obvious he was in pain. MRIs revealed a sprain but surgery was ruled out early on. Subsequently, he rested the remainder of the season which seems to be a wise decision based on his latest bullpen session.

Before Dunning was sidelined he was in the midst of a stifling season with a 2.71 earned run average spread over 15 starts between High-A and Double-A -- 11 of those starts were at the higher level.

Pain-free bullpens are what fans and coaches alike want to see from Dunning. It will take time to rebuild his strength, but if he can climb back to the point where he is one-hundred percent healthy and ready for a full workload by the start of Spring Training he should still be on pace to reach the majors by lat 2019/2020.

With so many power-arms reaching the big-league staff Dunning will be an effective change of pace. He's more Greg Maddox than Nolan Ryan and when opponents see 96-100 mile-per-hour fastballs day in and day out, Dunning's 94 with command and secondary stuff is sure to flummox opponents.